Sunday, April 16, 2017

“Let us beware of creating a darkness at noonday for
ourselves by gazing, so to say, direct at the sun …………………… as though we could
hope to attain adequate vision and perception of Wisdom with mortal eyes. It
will be the safer course to turn our gaze on an image of the object of our
quest.” ……….Plato
in ‘The Athenian Stranger’

The image of the resurrected Christ which we see in all
Christian churches immediately draws us to a great spiritual mystery. Why did
the canonical Gospel writers surround this great mystery with physical events? What
was the purpose of this episode? Unfortunately, the doctrine of the church has
assigned a miraculous and unique evet of Jesus conquering physical death
through a physical resurrection. This is counter intuitive to the very great
and deep spiritual mystery and dilutes a universal truth to a very individual event
in an individual’s life. St. Paul in his letter to the Romans is very clear in
a language a common man can understand:

“Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into
death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united
with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that
the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.”
………Romans 6: 4-6

The universal nature of death and resurrection is very
clearly explained by St. Paul. This happened in his own life as if Saul had not
died Paul would not have resurrected. To circumvent this ontological conundrum,
we have conveniently instituted a universal time delay for humanity to a
physical resurrection at the end of time. With today’s truth revealed in modern
cosmology, the Earth has a potential life span of billions of years and as
scientific advancement takes place, humanity will spread far beyond the solar
system. This raises a big question on the ‘end of days’.

The words of St. Paul has to be seen from a deeper
level. When Paul talks of sin, it means the corrupted nature of the physical
embodiment and when he talks of the ‘Father’, it is a reference to the Divine
consciousness from which all manifestations happen.

Raghavan Iyer, a great theosophist
writes in an article “The Gospel According to St.
John”

“There is another meaning of the 'Father' which is
relevant to the opportunity open to every human being to take a decision to
devote his or her entire life to the service of the entire human family. The
ancient Jews held that from the illimitable Ain-Soph there came a reflection,
which could never be more than a partial participation in that illimitable
light which transcends manifestation. This reflection exists in the world as
archetypal humanity – Adam Kadmon. Every human being belongs to one single
humanity, and that collectively stands in relation to the Ain-Soph as any one
human being to his or her own father.”

A number of things have to be revealed through deeper
introspection. In my previous blog article, I had dealt with the mystery of Christ
and the significance of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. It is a process of
redeeming the Divine consciousness which is housed in the poverty of the human
body. Jesus, by subjecting himself to physical suffering and death, demonstrated
how a human life has to be lived. This is the course that every human life
should follow before ultimate liberation of the Divine consciousness through
dispensation of the lower habitations to ultimately unite with the Father.

Jesus demonstrates the fact that it is the Divine
consciousness that inhabits every manifestation through a transfiguration on
Mount Tabor as well as appearing to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection and
appearing thrice to the disciples.

As Plato says, human eyes cannot behold the grandeur of
the Divine light which has a powerful potential of annihilation all material
manifestations. Our eyes can be blinded by a direct look at the Sun.

In Bhagavad Gita in Chapter 11, Lord Krishna bestows a
special sight to Arjuna to behold his universal form.

“But you cannot see Me with your present eyes.
Therefore I give to you divine eyes by which you can behold My mystic opulence.
……………………If
hundreds of thousands of suns rose up at once into the sky, they might resemble
the effulgence of the Supreme Person in that universal form.” ……….BG Ch 11:8,10

The bridge between human consciousness and the Divine
consciousness is fraught with hurdles and difficulties to traverse. When
seeking a passage through our mental capabilities only a limited perception is
possible.

In the very first chapter of the Gospel of St. John,
the apostle writes:

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all
mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
it..” ……….John 1:4-5

Human beings have increasingly evolved in the darkness
of illusion, of self-forgetfulness, and forgetfulness of their divine lineage.
The whole of humanity may be tarnished by forgetfulness of their true eternal
and universal mission. Every man or woman is born for a purpose. Every person
has a Divine destiny. Every individual has a unique contribution to make, to
enrich the lives of others, but no one can say what this is for anyone else.
Each one has to find it, first by arousing and kindling and then by sustaining
and nourishing the little lamp within the heart.

The human Jesus and the Divine Christ in a single
embodiment is the greatest gift we could receive, As Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas:

"I will give you what no eye has seen, what no ear
has heard, what no hand has touched, what has not arisen in the human
heart." …………..Gospel of Thomas, Saying 17

It is very unfortunate in the past 2000 years we are
trying to see with our physical eyes and hear with our physical ears and touch
with our physical hands. Only a handful of mystics have gone to the heart level
to perceive the Divine light. Let us transcend the physical and historical dimension
and grasp the inner revelation that is given to us in Easter mystery.

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